Our personal journey that takes us to the miraculous Nintendo Switch version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt continues. The world in which the Witcher moves is vast and fraught with dangers and we know it well because we have already seen two exemplary cases: the Griffon of White Orchard and the Werewolf of Velen.
Today our collection is enriched with another beast that has always been a classic: the vampire. Could it ever be missing in the universe of Andrzej Sapkowski and CD Projekt RED? As in the other cases, here too we will examine a pivotal mission of the game, Carnal Sins, to best introduce the beast and the atmosphere of the role-playing game.
Peccati Carnali is a secondary mission, but at the same time of primary importance, which starts immediately after completing Cabaret: we are in Novigrad, at the end of all the steps taken to free Dandelion. That of the vampire in The Witcher 3 is a more advanced story than the others dealt with then if you want to avoid any spoilers we advise you to jump directly to the paragraph "know your enemy" and what concerns combat.
Before launching into the middle of the mission, we would like to briefly introduce vampires in The Witcher. These, like all the other monsters, arrived 1500 years earlier with the Conjunction of the Spheres, a cataclysm that ripped the veil that divided their world from ours. Sapkowski's vampires unhinge many preconceptions related to these creatures: garlic, wooden stakes and crucifixes are all nonsense and they also don't need blood to survive - it's their alcohol, or coke if you don't drink. The vampire in question is a Katakan, very similar in appearance to Ekimmuh (or Ekimmara) but more intelligent.
From the diary:
Katakans and their more dangerous cousins, the nekurats, are the very embodiment of human fear. They hide in the shadows. They feed on blood. They resemble huge bats ... but with long fangs and even longer claws.
Peccati Carnali begins rather impetuously: Dandelion wants to transform the Thyme and Rosemary into the new landmark of Novigrad, a cabaret called the Chameleon. Only a few hours to go before the debut, but Priscilla, the beautiful storyteller with blonde hair, is late in arriving. You don't have to wait long to see these words written:
When the doors of the Chameleon swung open in its place there was a messenger from the Vilmerius hospital. With a pale and grim face, he informed us that Priscilla had been badly wounded in an assault and that she was struggling between life and death.
Priscilla was attacked in one of the many alleys from what turns out to be the Novigrad killer: Priscilla was lucky in her own way, because her modus operandi is tremendous. The diagnosis of the hospital's chief surgeon, Joachim Von Gratz, is that Priscilla was forced to swallow formaldehyde, an acid that seriously jeopardizes her future chances to perform and sing. Many others have fared worse, as the Witcher will see with his own eyes when he accompanies Von Gratz to perform an autopsy on his latest victim, a carver.
The research, part 1: Sewers, Morgue and Alleyways
Dandelion asks Geralt to make him pay and the Witcher obviously doesn't let him say twice that he is already in the sewers to clandestly reach the morgue. In the sewers you'll have to face some Drowners and a Water Witch: the only one that could pose some problems is the second, but a wise use of Igni and Quen and Geralt will already be in search of the body, a dwarf that can be examined in an accurate way. With him as an example we understand that the less fortunate died in unspeakable pain: tied up (marks on the wrists), his eyes were first gouged out and then his heart removed. The two also find residues of glowing coals in the eye sockets and a salamander egg in the chest, both allegories to the Eternal Fire, a cult of fanatics that became a real Church in that of Novigrad.
Geralt and the doctor are interrupted by another man, who turns out to be the city coroner and former teacher of Joachim Von Gratz. His name is Hubert Hejk and it is impossible not to notice how the head physician does not have great sympathies towards him. Nathaniel Pistori also arrives at the reunion, supervisor of the city morgue and cleric of the Eternal Fire who drives Geralt away by labeling him as an intruder.
At this point the Witcher has three paths to take:
- Interrogate the local gravedigger, Eustace, who found the dwarf's body
Eustace is the closest and doesn't have much to tell us other than stealing corpses. Through the Axii sign or physical constriction Eustace will drop a letter in human skin on which a "worried citizen" writes the name of his next victim: Priscilla. If Eustace, therefore, had brought the letter to whom Priscilla was responsible for, she would never have been attacked. The decision to hit it or not is up to you.
- Investigate the dwarf carver's workshop
The visit to the workshop confirms the suspicions of the Witcher who sees an exponent of the Eternal Fire as guilty: his brother welcomes him, who explains to Geralt how the dead man carved statues of Melitele with a prosperous breast and how this had angered more than one. believer. An investigation into the room leads to confirmation that the killer and victim fought and that she had to surrender due to formaldehyde and killed on a pyre erected with obscene Melitele statues.
- Investigate the alley where Priscilla was attacked
In this alley, Geralt will be attacked by the brothers of a prostitute who thinks him the killer. It's a fist fight, to be won by dodging and chaining light or heavy attacks. It is not possible to use signs. The search is not very fruitful and Geralt is ordered by a guard to go to the morgue: the killer has struck again.
The research, part 2: Vegelbud's residence, Kate la Zoppa (and Magazzino)
Welcoming the Witcher is Rejk, who asks him if he wants to join the autopsy. The two find another letter with the new designated name: Patricia Vegelbud, owner of the homonymous residence outside the city. Before taking off and talking to Rejk, Geralt discovers that Rejk was none other than Joachim's teacher when they were at Oxenfurt University. Rejk, who certainly has aged well, was forced to suspend his pupil following the student riots of 1242 in which he had participated and due to a strange twist of fate they had both found themselves in Novigrad.
Once they arrive at the Vegelbud residence, already visited with Triss Merigold, Geralt is greeted by his daughter, Ingrid, who claims that her mother has recently rejected faith in the Eternal Fire. This was fatal to him: a flight of stairs and the matriarch will already be dead, tied up and stripped naked on the bed.
The culprit has escaped from the window and the Witcher launches in pursuit, but a misunderstanding with the guards causes him to lose track. The soldiers are too many and there is no way to defeat them: let yourself be beaten the right one to start the cut scene that will allow, among other things, to inspect the room and find another name signed by the worried citizen: a prostitute in the pleasure house Kate the Lame.
From the diary:
Geralt entered the woman's room and found Reverend Nathaniel, whom he had previously met in the morgue. The situation was rather ambiguous: Nathaniel stood on Nettie with a glowing poker in his hand.
We arrived at the central point of the mission: with this conversation the discovery of the culprit or his perennial escape is played out. options to choose in the dialog are always the latter, then ask Nathaniel about the victims and the letters. If not, Nathaniel will attack causing the real culprit to escape and Priscilla never gets justice.. The mission can end like this, with the return of Geralt to the hospital room and a corpse found at a later time where the killer makes him marameo.
The former torturer will do two and two. Only one other man knew where he would be, a colleague who is now in a port warehouse due to the timely arrival of formaldehyde for medical use: Hubert Rejk, who turns out to be a vampire. That's why despite being younger he was Joachim's teacher: vampires age slowly - and some are even immortal. Not him.
Know your enemy:
Melitele, Great Mother, protect us from evil, from impure devils and vile demons and above all from the clutches of the katakan and nekurat.
- Fragment of prayer
The killer is a vampire who believes in Eternal Fire and all his murders have been committed against people who spit on this religion. Vampires have it on their side that the Witcher medallion does not vibrate in their presence, so they cannot notice them in human form.
Despite its pompous presentation, the one against the vampire is not a complicated fight, as long as you have already faced some Ekimmuh and are at least level 16. Having specified this, in the world of The Witcher the best way to know the enemy is to read his characteristics in the bestiary. The katakan is weak to the following objects or signs:
- Bomb: Moon dust, Devil's mushroom
- Vampire ointment: if you have not already found it in your travels (it is random) you have to try your luck among the various herbalists.
- Yrden: does not allow the vampire to become invisible
- Igni: all vampires are weak to the fiery sign
The Black Blood potion also damages vampires and necrophages that affect Geralt, making it a great alchemical preparation to consider alongside the Thunder potion.
The fight
The katakan behaves like an Ekimmuh, becoming semi-invisible. He is a vampire with intelligence, but not enough to be considered "superior" as the game leads you to believe (and the Blood and Wine expansion is proof of that).
Like all vampires, katakan shouldn't be tackled at night: it is more powerful, and its regeneration is proof of this. They are very fast creatures that disappear and reappear to try some claws, so their move park is very sparse, but this simplicity must not let our guard down. First of all you have to grease the silver weapon with anti-vampire ointment which will give a damage bonus and wait for the vampire to materialize near us.
Fast attacks are preferred and use Quen as much as possible, which must be your first choice when it comes to signs, followed by Yrden if you don't have bombs to get him back in shape. The most important thing to have, however, are definitely the reflexes ready to dodge the vampire's simple but treacherous attacks.
Like the ekimmuhs and katakans before him, this one will also collapse proving to be a lot of smoke and little roast.
Epilogue
From the diary:
He seemed a gentle and easygoing man, but in reality he was a brutal, bloodthirsty vampire, with a twisted and fanatical mentality hidden under his unchanging mask of eternal youth.
Priscilla and all the other victims before her have been avenged. We can only hope that her beautiful voice will return as it once was, but in our hearts we are sure that Callonetta will return to the stages of Novigrad. Because we may be monster hunters, but we prefer to hear a warm voice in an inn on a cold night, waiting for morning to come, rather than violence - that's what sets us apart from the beasts.
The Witcher 3, with Geralt of Rivia and his entire bestiary, also arrives on the Nintendo Switch on October 15th. Are we ready to be hunters of the best (or worst) species? We may never be, but this time we gladly made an exception.
► The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an RPG-Action-Adventure game developed by CD Projekt RED and published by Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 19/05/2015
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is not a game worth buying: we decided to rate it with a %, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Review of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
